FanHouse Gold Cup

In the grand scheme of things, the first five matches for the U.S. national team in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup haven't had all that much long-term significance. That, however, changes Sunday afternoon when the U.S. meets with rival Mexico at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to crown the tournament champion. (Fox Soccer Channel, 3 p.m.)

It doesn't matter so much that when that most of the players contesting Sunday's final won't be around come Aug. 12 when the teams meet again in Mexico City for a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier. This is still U.S. vs. Mexico, the most heated rivalry in the region regardless of the starting XIs.

As we hit the semifinals of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the U.S. lineup continues to resemble a revolving door. Players are in for a game, then scuffling back across the Atlantic to join their club teams.

Take defender Michael Parkhurst for example. The former MLS Rookie of the Year was with the U.S. for its group stage matches, then flew to Denmark to be with his club team (FC Nordsjaelland) and missed the U.S. 2-1 semifinal win over Panama on Saturday. Now he's back in the fold as the U.S. looks to book its place in the final with its third match since June against Honduras Thursday night at Solider Field in Chicago.

For the second straight match in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the U.S. national team is breathing a major sigh of relief. Trailing by a goal at the half, the U.S. rallied for a 2-1 win over Panama Saturday night in Philadelphia in extra time to advance to the semifinals.

A week after needing a stoppage-time cracker from Stuart Holden to salvage a 2-2 draw with Haiti, again the U.S. left it to be decided late. Saturday night Kenny Cooper was the hero, placing a 104th-minute penalty kick just inside the left post and past diving Panama keeper Jamie Penedo.

With two wins already in the books during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, for all intents and purposes there wasn't a whole lot riding for the U.S. in their final Group B match Saturday night in Foxborough, Mass., against Haiti.

For about 92 minutes, though, it looked like the U.S. might have some major egg on its face. But with about a minute left, Stuart Holden cracked a wonder strike from outside the penalty area into the upper right corner of the net to save the U.S. some major embarrassment and salvage a 2-2 draw, winning the Group in the process. It was his second goal in as many games during the tournament, which are also his only two full senior level international appearances.

Scanning through some late night television Wednesday night, I settled on ESPNEWS. After a few minutes the bottom line scoreboard flashed Mexico 1, Panama 1 (85th). Intrigued I flipped over to Univision to watch, hopefully, Panama hold on for a draw in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see the choatic scenario that played out at Houston's Reliant Stadium. Instead of Mexico pressing for a late go-ahead goal, it was simply chaos on the field. Players from both teams swarmed around referee Joel Aguilar protesting something. Eventually Panama's Ricardo Phillips was led off the field through a phalanx of officials to protect him from flying objects.

The trickle down effect of the U.S. national team's run to last month's Confederations Cup final is coming into fruition this week. First we saw defender Oguchi Onyewu ink a deal with AC Milan and now it appears that young forward Charlie Davies is on to bigger and better things with a possible move to Sochaux of France's Ligue 1, as reported by the French sports daily L'Equipe.

Probably more than any other player on the American roster, Davies broke out during the two weeks in South Africa thanks to his blinding speed. The New Hampshire native has carried that form into July's CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring a goal and pacing the attack in Saturday's 4-0 stomping of Grenada as well as playing off a perfect lay off to Santino Quaranta for the U.S.'s first goal in a 2-0 win over Honduras Wednesday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Santino Quaranta broke a scoreless tie in the 75th minute and Brian Ching followed with a header in the 79th, giving the United States a 2-0 win against Honduras in the Gold Cup on Wednesday night.

The United States, two-time defending champion in the competition contested among the countries of North and Central America and the Caribbean, is 23-0-1 in Gold Cup group play..

When the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup in the midst of the U.S.'s surprising run to the Confederations Cup final, the general consensus was that the lineup was thoroughly a "B" team. After all, the supposed "A" team had done enough work in upsetting then-FIFA No. 1 Spain, and giving newly minted top dog Brazil a run for its money, before losing 3-2 last week.

On Wednesday, CONCACAF said it would allow the U.S. to add seven players to the already 23-man roster for the Gold Cup due to playing in back-to-back competitions barely separated by a week and, more importantly, over 10,000 miles. Thursday the USSF announced those seven players -- all members of the Confederations Cup roster -- upgrading the roster to a solid "B+."

The work, apparently, is never over for the U.S. National Team. Fresh off takings its bows after a stunning 2-0 upset over No. 1-ranked Spain at the Confederations Cup Wednesday, the U.S. was back to work Thursday.

In this case, it was naming a 23-man roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which begins on July 4 in Seattle with a match against Grenada. Of note, only six players on the Gold Cup roster have over 10 caps. On top of that, just Michael Parkhurst and Brian Ching were on the 2007 competition roster, which the U.S. won, punching their ticket to the 2009 Confederations Cup in the process.

Wow. Wow. I had been waiting for a moment like that since the 2002 World Cup, one in which the flight of the ball first looks promising, then looks downright exciting, then ripples the back of the net as you scramble to rearrange the world into a new, brighter version in which that impossible thing actually happened. Usually you do this while standing up and going "WOOOOOOOOOOOO" real loud.

Ladies and gentlemen, wooo. Wooo wooo wooo. Benny Feilhaber's 73rd minute wonder volley past the outstretched arms of an until-then-brilliant Oswaldo Sanchez staked the United States to a 2-1 lead they would maintain, though not before multiple heart attacks on both ends of the field, for a Gold Cup victory and a berth in the 2009 Confederations Cup.

And, man... that was one of those moments only soccer can deliver, when the impossible materializes in front of your eyes. The rest of the game was delicious, delicious gravy, but the main course was one looping volley that Benny Feilhaber will probably never replicate. Footie partisans wait years for that sort of thing. Too bad most of the country missed it. Boxes post jump.